Soaring stopped for the time being: Werder Bremen suffered an unexpected defeat in the Bundesliga. Against FSV Mainz 05, the recently promoted team lost 0:2 (0:1) at home on the 10th matchday, Marcus Ingvartsen (36th) and Jae-Sung Lee (66th) scored for the clever Mainz team.
After the setback, Werder are now in eighth place in the table, while Bo Svensson’s team improved to ninth place.
“It will be an intense game. After winning the ball, we have to secure the ball quickly and find playful solutions quickly because there won’t be much time for that,” said Werder coach Ole Werner before the game.
And his team tried hard to implement the specifications. After only 60 seconds, Marvin Ducksch had the first really good opportunity, a little later Niclas Füllkrug completed a promising counterattack (12th) too unclean.
And because Mainz, like Leandro Barreiro (29th), kept getting chances, and the absence of Werder defender Milos Veljkovic made itself felt, it was quite an entertaining game in front of 41,000 spectators.
However, both teams could not keep up the high initial tempo for long. In a phase when Werder seemed to be taking control, Ingvartsen caught the home side ice-cold – the Dane scored with a head for the first time in the Bundesliga.
After conceding, Werder kept trying to increase the tempo, but found it very difficult against Mainz’s well-organized defence. Dominik Kohr and Edimilson Fernandes were very attentive and always managed to prevent the allusions to Füllkrug and Ducksch.
And while Bremen had more possession and waited for their chances, Mainz increasingly relied on counterattacks over time. Lee then used one of them ice-coldly from a short distance.